According to the Wall Street Journal, Graduate Students of any Business School are finding that there are fewer offers this year as in previous years. Formerly, for most MBAs the offers for a lucrative and plush job would come pouring in by no later than January of any year. The students would accept the job or entertain various offers and go to interviews. Sadly this is not the case these days.
Officials in charge of recruitment and careers say that this has been the poorest season they can remember. It is not the fault of the students who probably gave up good jobs to study or who have made major changes in their lives to attend a business school. It is due to the unyielding conditions of the economy.
56% of business schools reported a decrease in recruiting this past winter. Job postings were also in a slump with over 70% of business schools saying that postings were down 10 per cent. Less internships are being offered and with that comes fewer interns being hired by the company for which they served.
Most of the huge companies and Fortune 500 businesses are on a hiring freeze right now and are operating on a skeleton staff. They have gone through a phase of laying off or retiring as many staff as possible. Some companies have gone into receivership and cannot make the offers they were used to making. So much has happened in the past year.
Students will have to be more resourceful, come up with their own business plans and they might even choose to start their own companies with classmates. They might be the new dog on the street but they would be responsible for their own productivity and earnings. What a coup!